Sunday, November 19, 2006

For the last couple of days I have been watching Al-Jazeera's recently launched English news channel and I am really impressed.

It is not available in India but the news capsule is available on their website or you can go through this LINK FOR their LIVE STREAM directly.

Seems the channel is not welcome in America. The channel has been launched worldwide but is not available on Echostar's dishnetwork or any other major US cable or satellite network.

Agreed that Bush administration doesn't like the channel but why corporate America is against it. New York Times wrote that it's a shame that Americans couldn't watch it. The news channel is known to unbiased and for its reporters' courage in covering wars from conflict zones.

Its journalists are already getting known for their professionalism. Tony Blair's interview and admission of failure in Iraq has been a good start for the channel. Most newspapers agreed that it's presentation was standard and at par with the best in the world.

END TO EMBEDDED JOURNALISM

People call it as end of western dominance of global news space. But surely Europeans and US citizens can get the other side of story also. The world has just got another quality news channel with a different perspective and agenda than the CNN, FOX et al.

Many journalists working for the channel have lost their lives, while covering the news. Such is their dedication! Will my cable guy show it? It is Rajat Sharma's India TV that shows a 15-30 minute news clip [in Urdu] in the evening.

Recently, reports have suggested that Indian government has allowed the Qatar-based TV channel to broadcast in India also. One hopes that we'll soon be getting the channel here also. At least, this will raise the bar, and our Indian channels will stop presenting Bollywood trivia, and start focusing on hard news & issues.

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